The present invention relates generally to the field of crash detection, and more particularly to debugging assistance.
A crash in computing is when a computer program, such as a software application or an operating system, stops functioning properly (e.g., exits, ceases to respond to inputs, operating system halts, etc.). Most crashes result from the execution of invalid machine instructions (i.e., set of instructions executed directly by a central processing unit). Often, crashes are caused by software bugs (i.e., error, flaw, failure, fault, etc.) in the code of a computer program or system that cause illegal instruction exceptions which may result from invalid requests that produce an incorrect, unexpected result, and/or unintended behavior. Software bugs in the software code start a chain of events that cause a crash, which are discoverable through the process of debugging (i.e., process of finding and resolving defects that prevent correct operation). The original software bug can be far removed from the event of the crash and be caused by the execution of code that appears valid, but produces invalid results.